Urban Outfitters is making its biggest advertising push yet around the college shopping season.
On Wednesday, the retailer launches “All Together Now,” its first dedicated back-to-campus commercial, featuring 76 students from more than 10 universities. The campaign will run across social media, stores and connected TV, marking a move into longer-form advertising as Urban Outfitters looks to build on its recent turnaround and acquire more college-age customers.
Filmed inside Rutgers University’s 52,454-seat football stadium, the commercial begins with a handful of dance students in a stadium dance battle. The camera pans to a girl in the stands wearing full UO, watching and livestreaming the performance to her friends, before her friends drop what they are doing and race over to join her. Each new arrival brings more dancers, football players and a marching band, until the showdown has swallowed the whole field and becomes a huge campus party. The cast includes marching band members, dance teams, creators and college football players.
“This is our first fuller-length commercial, so we’re excited to see what we learn,” said Shea Jensen, president of Urban Outfitters. “We know our customer is out on connected TV.”
The move into connected TV adds a more traditional advertising channel to a strategy previously centered on social media, creators and in-person campus events. Jensen said YouTube has become an increasingly important acquisition channel for Urban Outfitters among younger shoppers.
UO’s approach reflects a broader change in how youth-focused retailers are allocating their marketing budgets. Rather than choosing between high-reach advertising and smaller creators, brands are increasingly using both. American Eagle’s current back-to-school campaign combines celebrities and YouTube advertising with campus partnerships, RushTok and mall events, while Pacsun is recruiting young consumers into its Youth Council to help shape future campaigns and products.
UO is bringing those two parts of the strategy into the same piece of creative. The students are not only appearing in the commercial, but many already belong to its creator community and will distribute their own content from the campaign. UO is then using connected TV to give that student-led creative mass reach.
The commercial will be accompanied by student-created videos, behind-the-scenes content, selected store displays and Game Day events on college campuses. A dedicated shopping page on UO’s website will allow customers to shop the outfits worn by the different university groups featured in the film.
“It’s not about just one channel or one touchpoint,” Jensen said. “It really needs to be manifested across multiple touchpoints.”
The campaign arrives as UO’s North American business continues to recover after several years of declining sales. The brand’s comparable sales increased 9.3% in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. UO would not disclose how much of that increase was driven by college-age shoppers, but said last year’s back-to-campus period delivered stronger new-customer acquisition. Daily UO Rewards enrollment also increased by double digits compared to early summer.
Many of the students appearing in “All Together Now” already had relationships with Urban Outfitters. The UNLV and San Diego State University dance teams previously attended a Joshua Tree event organized through Me@UO, the retailer’s creator community. Me@UO has grown to more than 3,100 creators since launching in spring 2026.
Other participants include Grambling State University’s marching band, Rutgers students and student-athletes, and NIL football players including NC State’s CJ Bailey and Penn State’s Tony Rojas.
“We invited people into the cast who were already part of our community,” said Kali Batista, associate director of brand communications and social impact at Urban Outfitters. “They were already brand fans, and people we were already supporting and wanting to spotlight.”
Everyone featured was compensated. Some participated through existing year-long partnerships with UO, while others were paid specifically for the campaign. Rutgers paid its participating students directly under its student work policies.
The commercial also gives UO a platform to promote its owned brands, which now account for approximately 70% of its assortment. Owned brands produced eight of the retailer’s 10 bestselling products in fiscal 2026, up from six the previous year. BDG denim and Out From Under lounge now represent more than 40% of UO’s women’s apparel business.
The campaign prominently features the Iets Frans Harri jogger for $59, currently one of the retailer’s bestselling products, alongside fitted T-shirts and other casual pieces.
“Lounge and casual campus core are a huge part of the way these students are dressing,” Jensen said. “It’s comfortable, it’s versatile, and it makes college life easy and flexible.”
UO’s search data also shows that students are delaying more of their spending until closer to move-in. Interest in the new school year begins in May and peaks in June as students research products, but purchasing accelerates in late July and August. In 2025, college-related searches peaked during the week of July 27, several weeks later than the year before.
And dorm personalization remains a significant demand driver. Rugs were UO’s most-searched term overall during the season, while shower curtains and duvets recorded some of the strongest year-over-year search growth.
The test now for UO is whether student participation can retain its value when it becomes part of a national advertising campaign. The retailer is betting that the same students who give the commercial credibility can also help distribute it, while connected TV supplies the reach that individual creators cannot.
